It’s possible that this was your first thought when you realised that our first WordCamp in Cape Town since 2019 would be happening at the tail-end of winter. It’s also likely that you might be on the fence about coming, given that our dear old Cape of Storms can be extremely difficult around this time, and the venue is right on top of the Granger Bay harbour.

The community survey

In January of this year, the WordCamp Cape Town organising team asked you, the WordPress community, to help us shape WordCamp this year by taking a short survey. The first three questions in that survey were:

1. Should WordCamp Cape Town be a 1 or 2-day event?
2. Would you prefer mid-week or weekend?
3. What time of year should we host WordCamp Cape Town? 

While the final results were never publicly disclosed, the responses indicated that the community preferred a two-day event on a Thursday and Friday during the year’s second quarter, namely sometime between April and June.

The venue hunt begins

Armed with this knowledge, the organising team searched for a venue that could accommodate approximately 150 – 200 attendees over two days between April and June 2024.

Of the eight venues we thought would work, we narrowed our search down to three possible venues, with one emerging as the clear winner. We initially suggested dates of 30 and 31 May, which the venue confirmed were available. On Tuesday, February 20th, 2024, I emailed our confirmation of those dates with the venue and requested the official quote to finalise the dates.

The eagle-eyed reader might recognise that date as our president’s announcement of the 2024 general elections, which were to happen on the day right before our planned WordCamp dates. The venue emailed us the very next day to inform us that “Please note that the election dates have been announced by the president, and therefore our centre is currently tentatively booked over your requested date.”

We then tried to secure dates later in the year, only to be informed that “we do require a minimum of 50 room nights to the master account to quote on the above dates.” As we are not able to confirm at least 50 room bookings, which was an unexpected requirement, we decided to try and find a new venue.

Back to the drawing board

The organising team then had to scramble to find a new venue. During this time, some new options came to our awareness, including Homecoming Centre and Radisson Blu. Both were great venues, but we ultimately settled on Radisson Blu. It was the more cost-effective of the options, was more aligned with what we’re looking for, and, due to its location, was more easily accessible.

Once we’d decided on the venue, we consulted the survey results when choosing our date. Q3, July to September, was the next most popular choice in the survey, so we tried to find a date that suited both the venue and the majority of the organising team.

Making the best of a bad situation

It’s not what we originally wanted, but we South Africans are an adaptable bunch. It is our hope that you’ll look past the weather and join us in our shared interest in WordPress and web publishing. We’ve got some cool new sponsors on board and have had some really interesting speaker submissions, so it’s shaping up to be a great event, our first in almost five years.

You’ll get great food, swag, and views over the harbour if nothing else.

So grab your tickets now, before they sell out.